The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1887-06-08
CHINESE MONEY.
A CHAPTER ON THE COINS AND
CURRENCY OF CHINA.
The Only Native Coin a Copper
Piece-Mints for Coming Cash
Foreign Money Used
Banking in China.


per piece called tsien; it is thin and cir.
cular, rather more than an inch in diam
eter, with square hole in the middle for
| the convenience of stringing. This is
stamped with the Chinese word meaning
current, and the name of the province
where it is made. Mints for coming cash
as all small money is called-are estab-
lished in each provincial capital, under
the direction of the Revenue Department
of the government. The coin should
consist of an alloy of copper, so parts ;
zinc, 411; lead, 81; and tin, 2 parts:
and its standard weight should be So
grains troy, but it has been reduced and
debased so that those pieces now
in circulation are genera1ly y under 80
grains in weight, and are mainly COM
posed Of iron; and in spite of laws and
penalties, large proportion of the coins
now current are coined by private indi-
viduals. The value of this coin, if pure,
is about one and third cents of our
coinage, but the rate Of exchange for the
debased specimens usually current in
China varies in different provinces at
from 900 to 1900 for silver dollar.
The curious fact that neither silver nor
gold have ever been coined to any ex-
tent in China is accounted for by s.
Wells Williams in his comprehensive
work on the Chinese Empire, "The Mid
die Kingdom" by the statement that the
Government is not strong enough to re-
strain eounterfeiters, and not honest
enough, on the other hand, to issue pieces
of uniform standard for series of years
til it has obtained the confidence of its
subjects" DR.. Williams thinks that the
extension of foreign relations will in time
lead to the issue of sound national cur
rency. There have been two attempts
during this century to issue silver coins:
some of the value of a tael-about ST. so
were coined at Shanghai in 1856, and
in 1885 there was large coinage of ma.
tive dollars, weighing> 4t7.4 grains, at
Fuhkien and Formosa to pay the troops,
but these pieces were either melted
or counterfeited to such an extent as
soon as they appeared that IN a short
time they were wholly out Of circulation.
At present the medium of trade in the
open ports is the forergn dollar, which is
imported in great quantities from Mexico
and the United States, and these are
used in all of the important operations
of commerce throughout the empire, but
are soon converted into ingots, to suit
the curious national preference. Tho
person paying them out stamps them
with peculiar die, and after this has
been done several times the character of
the coin is injured, and the pieces are
then taken to be melted, refined, and
cast into ingots of bullion, which weigh
from five mace (about seventy-fve cents)
to fifty taels (about $75) and the larger
pieces are stamped with the district
magistrates title where they are made,
and the date, to verify them. Gold
bullion is cast into bars like cakes Of In
dia ink in shape, each worth about $15,
or hammered into thick leaves. The sill
yer ingots, called sycee, in pure state,
are from ninety-seven to ninety-nine per
cent. pure silver, but they are often de-
based, and dollars are often counterfeited,
so that all classes engaged in trade have
their money inspected by regular ex-
aminers, called shroffs, who, by practice,
become so expert that by the sight alone
they can decide on the degree of
alloy in a piece of silver, though
usually they employ touchstone
needles to aid them. All taxes and
duties are paid in sycee of ninety-eight
per cent. fineness, and the revenue de-
partmcnt licenses bankers to receive the
money, and pays them small percentage
for becoming responsible for the purity
of all the bullion that they take in. Bank
ing in China is carried on by private
parties altogether, since no charter or
warrant from the Government would in
sure any confidence with the people. Pri-
vate bankers, however, pay certain taxes
to the Government. All these banking
houses issue notes, but over-issue is
checked by the supervision of clearing
houses and by general lack of confidence
founded on long experience of the
thickness of human nature-which re-
stricts the circulation of notes always to
the town and often to the street or
neighborhood in which the bank is stu
ated. This curtailed circulation serves
good purpose in checking counterfeiting
of the bills, as in most cases doubtful
bill can be referred directly to the bank
whose name it bears. Such is the general
apprehension of spurious notes, however,
that both law and custom in most cities
give the person receiving bank-note
claim for full day upon the person pay
ing it to him, to be reimbursed should
the note prove counterfeit. Hong Kong
bills, however, circulate on the mainland
to very remote districts. In the
Southern provinces of the empire
dollars circulate generally, and bank
notes are quite unknown. Twice in
Chinese history the government has tried
the experiment of paper currency. The
Mongol dynasty of the thirteenth cen.
tury issued an enormous amount OF paper
money. The great Kublai Khan, who
started the scheme of buying treasure
with money that cost hin nothing,
thought that he had discovered the high.
est secret of alchemy and in his reign OF
thirty-four years issued 1924, 1856, 500.
His successors continued this manufac'
ture, but at last the people began to OBJ.
ject to the scheme and popular discon,
tent waxcd to such an extent during 10C
years of Stat money" that the Mongul
kings found themselves expelled from
their native land in 1868. The new
rulers were obliged to issue notes for
time to carry on the business of the court,
but soon ceased to do so. and paper
money was entirely superseded by coic
about the middle of the fifteenth cen.
al Il,